We must stick together... : My DAILY wildlife photo, species info and musings

As long as we stick together , we can smash the sadness - Mikey Way

---

Humanity is divided today. Emotionally. I do not mean divided only by cast, creed, color and economic classes. Emotional divide means, that connect which families used to have internally and with other families around is lost in the evolving world today.

Seeing these Green bee-eaters (Merops orientalis), huddled together for warmth on a cold winter morning triggered the thoughts of companionship, warmth and family in my mind.

Family sticks together and wins!

Warmth of human connection is something that has sustained humanity from pre-historic times. Man has always evolved as a social animal. We, as a species, have always valued companionship. Human emotional quotient has also evolved as our brains developed as part of the evolution process. Therefore, man does not move around in a solitary manner like leopards and tigers.

Man is a social animal

Due to this tendency of the emotional connect, man has an inherent dependence on sharing his personal high and low points in life with someone close. In fact, if he/she does not connect in such manner, a small stress starts to develop in all of us - at least, that is my personal experience.

The modern (urban) lifestyle, however, is mostly built around the concept of personal space, privacy and keeping oneself mostly aloof. Granted - this largely results in our own freedom to follow our own path but it slowly enhances the emotional disconnect with fellow humans.

As we all know with examples that we see in our families and all around us, the emotional disconnect leads to divides in humans. I see many families around me where sons/daughters do not communicate with their parents and parents are unable to connect with each other or their own peers. They are poles apart though inhabiting the same space.

Poles apart!

As times change, at some point of time, especially when calamities hit, suddenly we realize that Freedom is more of a state of mind that an actual distance from someone. At such a point in time, we crave the warmth of human company. Sometimes, those poor unfortunate souls who do not really have any friends to count on, end up metaphorically crying on a stranger's shoulders. Its all good - finally the warmth of human companionship is welcome in any form.

Then we huddle together, either physically or emotionally, connect, hold hands and get that warm and fuzzy feeling. Dark clouds do not just disappear or roll away. However, the day suddenly seems a bit brighter. The burden of life seems a wee bit lighter.

So - huddle, stick together and smash the sadness around us!

Here is the photograph in original size and form:

---

Information about the bird

• Name: Green Bee-eater

• Scientific name: Merops orientalis

• Size: Around 19 cm (9 inches)

• Conservation status: Least concern (IUCN 3.1)

• Description (based on e-bird, Wikipedia and my observations):
  This is a bird found practically in every type of habitat in Asia and Africa. It is quite colorful and tame. It is found very close to human habitation and even within cities. Found perched on small bushes and low branches, it is a common sight. It hunts by small sorties in air from a branch to acrobatically maneuver to catch insects, flies and wasps which form it's main diet. It usually returns to its favorite perch with it's kill.

---

Information about photograph

• Aperture: F7.1
• ISO: 2500
• Shutter: 1/640
• Support: Handheld shot
• Camera: Nikon D500
• Lens: Nikkor 200-500mm
• Image format: Photo clicked in RAW and edited for presentation sizing

A big thank you for support

Thanks to c/hive-106444 (Feathered friends community) for providing this wonderful opportunity to present my experience and photographs. Thanks to @barbara-orenya and @melinda010100 for all the support and encouragement to this community. Special thanks to @nelinoeva also for starting the Species hunt initiative. My posts are not exactly in that format but have all the necessary info and Good original Photos. Further guidance will be very much welcome.

Thanks to HIVE for this wonderful platform. I am using the Hive logo in the collage for showing that the image and post is a dedicated HIVE post. Hope that is OK. The HIVE animation is a graphic created by @doze and free to use as per his post. Many thanks to @doze.

---

Note: All images and collages in this blog are created by me, based on photos clicked by me personally and/or free vector images from Pixabay
Quotes used, if not credited, are either from unknown authors or are proverbial old sayings.

---